Walbert Ureña turns up the heat to lead Angels past Cardinals

ANAHEIM — After the radar gun surged, the traffic jam grew, and one of the Angels’ best single innings of the season ended up being more than enough on Tuesday night.

A 5-1 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals came after right-hander Walbert Ureña loaded up on early fastballs of more than 100 mph and the offense delivered five runs before making its first three outs.

Tuesday’s first inning was as if the Angels never relented from their two-run ninth inning on Monday that delivered a 3-2 victory over the Cardinals in the series opener. Only it was Ureña that kept the magic going from the mound.

The rookie right-hander entered with 16 fastballs of more than 100 mph this season, then matched that in the first inning alone. Ureña topped out at 101.5 mph on a pitch to Home Run Derby champion Jordan Walker and had six early pitches reach at least 101.1 mph.

“I haven’t seen him do that all year so it was pretty neat,” Angels manager Kurt Suzuki said.

Well-rested after last pitching a week before the All-Star break, then not returning until a week after play resumed, Ureña has now allowed just two combined runs over his last three outings.

“I used the rest to reset my mind and came into the second half having fun and making pitches every time I have the chance,” Ureña said. “It was amazing with the rest. It made me feel better just resting within my mind and with my family.”

His one run allowed Tuesday on six hits with one walk and five strikeouts over six innings means he still has not reached 90 innings on the season in 18 appearances (16 starts).

“(We’re) going to try to monitor the amount of rest he’s going to get between starts and we felt like he was the guy to get a few extra,” Suzuki said.

And while Ureña went two weeks between starts, the offense did not forget how to rally for the 22-year-old from the Dominican Republic. The last time Ureña pitched, the Angels earned a 13-1 victory over the Texas Rangers on July 8.

The Angels opened their half of the first inning with consecutive singles from Zach Neto and Mike Trout. Even though Neto was thrown out at third base following Trout’s base hit, cleanup hitter Jorge Soler still delivered a two-run double following a Nolan Schanuel walk.

A Vaughn Grissom single scored Soler and Jo Adell hit a two-run home run as each of the Angels’ first six batters reached base against Cardinals left-hander Matthew Liberatore.

“Just trying to be patient and let the pitches show up that I can handle,” Adell said. “And we’re doing a good job as a team of just sticking to the approach. I think watching the other guys’ at-bats has really helped me to kind of refine mine and wait for something I can do some damage with.”

Adell’s 15th of the season gave him home runs in consecutive games for the first time this season, although he does have a pair of two-homer games. It also came in his first at-bat after taking a pitch off the left elbow Monday to force home the game-winning run in the ninth inning.

“I know Joe’s been working so hard,” Suzuki said of Adell, who entered Monday’s game hitless over his previous 24 at-bats. “He’s been grinding in the cage, and the one thing I always said is he’s always coming to the field positive, ready to help the team however he can, and that stuff rubs off on guys. It’s not always when you get four hits, but it’s what you do when you’re struggling a little bit.”

The Cardinals finally broke through against Ureña in the fifth inning after consecutive singles from Blaze Jordan and Bryan Torres put runners on the corners. A ground ball from JJ Wetherholt scored Jordan.

Ureña ended his day with 18 pitches at 100 mph or more, while two more were clocked at 99.9 mph. Five of those 100-mph pitches were to Walker, while eight were to El Segundo High and USC product Lars Nootbaar. Seven of those to Nootbaar were strikes.

“He was unbelievable,” Adell said. “I mean, Mike (Trout) looked over to me in the first and second inning and was like ‘These are like 100-mph changeups.’ They were disgusting.”

Suzuki noted that the rest helped Ureña’s command more than anything.

“He was attacking the zone,” Suzuki said. “I know his thing is that his ball can be moving too much and can be going all over the place, hard to control. He was commanding it, he was executing, good offspeed pitches when he had to.”

The bullpen followed Ureña’s lead. Left-hander Mitch Farris went 1⅓ innings, right-hander Chase Silseth recorded two outs and right-hander Ryan Zeferjahn pitched the ninth as the Angels won three consecutive games for the first time since a four-game winning streak in early June.

“Coming out here and setting the tone right off the bat from the first inning, then Walby doing what he was doing, and the bullpen coming in to shut them down, was a great team victory,” Suzuki said.